despite what has honestly been a minor renasaince of national journalism
uh, you mean like when David Fahrenthold got a shiny pulitzer for individually calling hundreds of charities to prove that, oh no, Trump isn't even a charitable individual, which literally no one was touting anyway, news that is soooooooo important that when the charity was shut down recently it wasn't even covered by major outlets as a front page item? How about when CNN started a fuss every time something happened during the Clinton email investigation? Just last week I heard Fareed Zakaria use the phrase "plutocratic populism" which made me rofl. Where is this renaissance in national journalism?
Exactly how is the Trump foundation stuff not good journalism?
I'm not sure two cherry picked examples makes much of a case either. I do think the over-emphasis on the theatrics and pageantry of politics that tends to garner the headlines or dominate the big three cable networks, which is IMO the less appealing feature of the modern news economy, has ben somewhat corrosive. And is also where most of the issues that crop up, that Trump style fascists latch onto, tend to be orbiting around.
But lots of good journalism has been emerging over the last year plus. From the litany of breaking stories around the Russia investigation, to The Daily Beast and Pro-publica's extensive look into the appointees and judicial nominees of the Trump administration, to USA Today's reporting on lead in the water in states across the country, to the LA Times uncovering of Purdue Pharma's tactics with oxycontin, Mother Jones and their undercover work with private prisons in Louisiana. The Washington Post uncovering Roy Moore. McClatchy in collaboration with others exposing the Panama Papers. Even Buzzfeed has managed to do some good work with the uncovering of the BreitBart emails
.
Then there has been the proliferation of less standard forms of news and analysis that informs the public with the emergence of specialty podcasts, satirical news, and niche sites that add additional levels of analysis and sophistication at levels I certainly haven't seen. For instance I have a background in economics and worked in healthcare administration for a while, have always had a lot of interest in healthcare policy because I think it is America's grand moral failing to its citizenry in the last 100 years. There has never been a time where I have had as much in depth information, analysis, reporting and journalism surrounding this topic as I have had access to now. None of that is to say it couldn't be better, but the trends for a while were not looking so hot.
The problem as I see it, as that while the consolidation and staff reductions at the more established institutions have been offset in other ways on a national level, and certainly while it is improving from the trends that were harming it for so long, it isn't ideal. And the local level is still suffering immensely. This trend has completely passed over reporting at the local level. Which is concerning because often the really damning stories that affect people's lives stem from that. And more and more that seems to go critically under-resourced in many states.
